Feasibility and Interest in Earthquake Early Warning Systems for Areas of Moderate Seismicity: Case Study for the Pyrenees

Seismic risk in areas of moderate seismicity (AMS) is a reality and destructive earthquakes may occur there. This is why stakeholders and risk managers in these areas show an increasing interest in Earthquake Early Warning Systems (EEWS) and are wondering about the possibility of equipping their ter...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pure and applied geophysics 2015-09, Vol.172 (9), p.2449-2465
Main Authors: Auclair, Samuel, Goula, Xavier, Jara, Jose-Antonio, Colom, Yolanda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assessments
Borders
Early warning systems
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earthquakes
Emergency communications systems
Feasibility
Geophysics
Geophysics/Geodesy
Risk reduction
Sciences of the Universe
Seismic activity
Seismic hazard
Seismicity
Seismology
Warning
Warning systems
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Seismic risk in areas of moderate seismicity (AMS) is a reality and destructive earthquakes may occur there. This is why stakeholders and risk managers in these areas show an increasing interest in Earthquake Early Warning Systems (EEWS) and are wondering about the possibility of equipping their territories with such systems. This question of feasibility has to be broached globally: distinguishing technical feasibility from notions of opportunity and utility, an, thus, it has to involve both scientific experts and stakeholders. Moreover, it is necessary to consider each situation specifically without any preconceptions, specifically concerning potential uses that can be made of early warnings, in particular, it is clear that when applied to AMS, the EEWS principles translate into shorter lead times than the ones expected for more seismic areas and would, consequently, require considering new ways of using early warnings. Through the experience conducted for the Pyrenees (France–Spain border) as part of the SISPyr project, this study aims at identifying responses to the potential value of EEWS as real-time seismic risk mitigation tools for AMS as well as to offer a methodological framework to guide stakeholders in their assessment of opportunities to set up EEWS.
ISSN:0033-4553
1420-9136
DOI:10.1007/s00024-014-0957-x